St Remigius, Water Newton, Huntingdonshire

Feature Sets (2)

Description

St Remigius stands on the south bank of the River Nene. It consists of a chancel, a nave with N and S aisles and a south porch, and a west tower with a broach spire. The walls are of rubble with stone dressings. The chancel and nave were rebuilt, and presumably the aisles added, during the 13thc. The west tower was added early in the 14thc. In 1887, the north aisle and its arcade were rebuilt, and the whole church restored. The tower was restored in 1892. Nothing of the 12thc. fabric remains, but three of the bell-openings of the tower contain 12thc. material reused, according to Pevsner, from Castor.

History

The manor of 5 hides was held by the Abbot of Thorney in 1086. A priest and a church are mentioned at that date.

Benefice of Elton (All Saints) with Stibbington and Water Newton.

Features

Exterior Features

Windows

W tower, N bell opening

1st ordercapital worn, but presumably a 12thc. waterleaf as in the W opening. The bar tracery above the lancets is chip-carved with saltires in squares. The 2nd order is the same as the S opening. The 3rd is continuous with a nook
roll. The label is chamfered with corbel-like foliage stops.

W tower, S bell opening

Round-headed, three orders. The window opening itself contains a bar-tracery double (pointed) lancet with a central octagonal shaft carrying a worn capital, presumably a 12thc. waterleaf as in the W opening. The 2nd order is continuous and chamfered; the 3rd has nook
shaftscarrying worn, low cushion capitals with roll
neckings and no imposts. The arch has centrifugal lateral chevron on the face: a roll with a double-step fillet outside it. The label is chamfered with corbel-like foliage stops.

W tower, W bell opening

As S opening, except that the 1st order central shaftcapital is better preserved and clearly a waterleaf, and in the 3rd order the N capital is a cushion with a half-daisy on the shield, and the S capital is a double scallop.

Comments/Opinions

Stepped chevron, though not of this precise profile, is found in the W transept of Ely Cathedral and St Mary Magdalene, Cambridge.

Bibliography

Victoria County History: Huntingdonshire. III (1936)

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough, Harmondsworth 1968, 364.

RCHM(E), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Huntingdonshire. London 1926, 285-88.